Today's report on breakfast and news vignettes ventures into the murky world of politics and law enforcement. Breakfast today: toast and coffee; no shave, of course, but an interlude of whimsical heat yoga followed by juicy red apple and tea.

Dispatch scapegoat?

Sergeants continue to warn of "imminent tragedy" resulting from consolidation of the state police dispatch system. Dispatchers and troopers tell Cool Justice workers at the consolidation center in Litchfield are "stressed ... absolutely at their breaking point."

Since last spring, troopers, dispatchers and local officials reported numerous 911 calls being dropped, unanswered or mishandled. A trooper who could not get backup was seriously injured during a violent confrontation in May 2012 in New Fairfield. A pedestrian walking on Route 8 in Waterbury was killed http://tinyurl.com/72md89h that same month after a 23-minute dispatch delay.

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Col. Danny Stebbins addressed the Waterbury fatality last June, telling The Register Citizen there was "no clear violation" by the dispatcher. "That could have happened in the old system or the new system," Stebbins said.

The dispatchers, a sergeant said in a memo just last month, "are clearly operating beyond the ability of any individual to prioritize and multitask. We are all suffering tremendously and it is clearly indicated in our work product."

One dispatcher was suspended recently for 10 days, troopers and dispatchers said.

"There was a need for someone to be punished and my client routed the call to the correct place where it was not answered," said attorney Jeff Ment of Hartford's Rome-McGuigan. "It seems like a chaotic system in need of monitoring."

Ment said the internal affairs report on the incident acknowledged the system had not been fully vetted, and the initial punishment sought was as much as a 30-day suspension.

During high volume times, troopers still say they call in repeatedly and are not being answered. They fault what is described as the "sudden implementation" of the new dispatch system and question whether the touted economy measure is actually costing the state more money.

A 49-page staffing report submitted to the Legislature last fall by Stebbins and Major Alaric Fox did not delineate average response times or go beyond general statements about heavy case loads for troopers.

Those details are important because the minimum staffing level set by the Legislature http://tinyurl.com/chka3dc was the result of a fatality in which state police were found to have insufficient troopers on patrol to respond to a serious incident within national response standards. The incident that spurred the law was the 1998 murder of Heather Messenger in her Chaplin home. The nearest trooper was 18 minutes away when she called 911 shortly before she was bludgeoned to death.

Stebbins two-step

Col. Stebbins' dish of the Newtown killer's spreadsheet http://tinyurl.com/dyrf88vv to the mid-year gathering of the International Association of Police Chiefs and Colonels this month even surprised FBI agents working on the case, sources told Cool Justice.

"The toothpaste got out of the tube and it won't go back in - accurately reported," a state police source said. "They should brief the families and get the truth out."

After New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica reported Stebbins' remarks, state police said the colonel's comments were intended "for law enforcement professionals only."

"Following every tragic mass murder incident in this country, it is customary for law enforcement to share their lessons learned from the investigation," Lt. Paul Vance said. "It is unfortunate that someone in attendance chose not to honor Col. Stebbins' request to respect the families' right to know specifics of the investigation first."

Cops across the nation, meanwhile, were shocked, shocked that anyone among the hundreds of political appointees at a convention in New Orleans would talk out of school and feed the story to a journalist of Lupica's caliber.

Investigative grand juries

Why do people associate political corruption and cover-ups with one-man grand juries?

These fact-finding inquiries often are the result of the failure of local law enforcement and sometimes even the judiciary to perform their sworn duties. It happens now and then that someone is getting away with something and they have inside help. Such cases have been well documented over the years in Torrington, New Britain, New London and Hartford, just to name a few.

The quality and effectiveness of these secret probes vary widely. Factors include the caliber and aggression of grand jury personnel - a special prosecutor and a judge - the politics of the day and the investigation leading to the grand jury.

Connecticut's chief administrative judge for criminal cases, Robert Devlin, has a case emanating from an investigative grand jury before him. If the case ever goes to trial, Devlin's demeanor and evidentiary rulings will be watched closely.

What evidence will be presented? What will be thrown out? What level of cross-examination will be allowed? These fundamental questions take on more significance in such a case.

The trial involves another judge as a cooperating witness in a bribery case connected with the Mary Badaracco http://tinyurl.com/cu42oo7 homicide. Badaracco, then 38, disappeared from her home in Sherman in 1984. The case went nowhere for at least half a dozen years.

Efforts to pursue the Badaracco case have been sidetracked in recent years, culminating in the leak of inside information about grand jury proceedings to a prime suspect via a judges' luncheon.

How much of this nearly 29-year-old cold case has been contained during the investigation? How much could come out at trial? Or, will the machinery of Corrupticut ensure it never goes to trial? Stay tuned. The latest trial date, following several postponements, is June 10 in Bridgeport.

Andy Thibault is a contributing editor for Journal Register Co.'s Connecticut publications and the author of Law & Justice In Everyday Life. He formerly served as a commissioner for Connecticut's Freedom of Information Commission. Reach Thibault by email at tntcomm82@cs.com. Follow him on Twitter @cooljustice.